In all honesty, it felt very strange to have the other new moons standing at the end of my hall.

"And you are certain that you are well?" Vanda asked with my right hand held in both of hers.

The sweet faced underwitch had kept a hand on me in one way or another ever since Tana had been carried out of the classroom. I had not minded it at all. She had been nothing but a comfort to me and becoming myself again would have been twice as hard without her.

"Yes." I answered for the third time.

It was not dishonest. After my afterglow had faded and I had spent another hour enjoying the attention of those that I was meant to think of as my sisters, I did not feel bad.

I had won in more ways than one, and Tana had needed to be charmed just to calm down. Even if part of me wished I would have let myself ruin her, her threat held no more weight, and I hadn't even needed to tell the secrets I knew about her for that to happen.

"When I said I will get you food, I meant it. It helps," Plia said. "Whatever you want. Sourdough, buttered rolls, stewed pork, fried potatoes, those little biscuit things with the chicken in them. Oh, oh, and the vegetables with the burnt marks on them. It really doesn't even matter what kind it is. Sweets too, those are the best."

The little underwitch wasn't even looking at me any more. In her long list of foods, she had gone some place else, somewhere that imagined looked very similar to the dining hall.

Mallory reached over and closed Plia's mouth for her. "Easy, you're going drool all over yourself."

Without a moment passing, she pushed Plia back and threw her arms around my neck.

It took me a moment, but I eventually found the presence of mind to hug her back.

"I know I have made a habit of being so effortlessly charming and seductive, but I won't get you all hot and bothered right now." She said without separating from me.

"Thank you for your restraint, but I'm fine. I promise." I said for what felt like the hundredth time.

They didn't believe me. I could see it in their eyes, but that wasn't their fault.

For one, I had accidentally exposed myself to people so many times that I had grown used to the embarrassment. And, when someone knew what it was like to wake up in an unknown forest when they went to sleep in their bed or having their skin ground away after being buried alive like I did, having their dress thrown up wasn't really that bad.

Mallory pulled back and planted a playful kiss on my cheek before she let me go. "Whatever you say, Ire. But now that I know where you live, we're going to come for a visit soon. I have some questions for that dark haired beauty you keep locked away in there."

"Come on you two, I'm sure Ire is ready to go to her quarters." Vanda said as she finally let go of me and stepped back towards the singing stairs.

Mallory held up a finger. "Since we've been taking care of you all evening, I think I've earned at least one question. Anna, that's her name right? Anna is your partner?"

"Yes, and yes." I answered.

"And your boyfriend, Arthur, is her brother?" Mallory continued, one hand on her hip and the other gesturing in the air with a pointed finger.

Plia sighed and turned away. "Goodnight, Ire."

"Goodnight, Plia," I said in return before bring my attention back to Mallory. "That's a second question, isn't it?"

"Stop. Zetta already likes you enough. Don't start making me earn my answers. I just wanted to know if everybody involved in your situation is happy. How does Anna feel about sharing you with her brother?" She was not being playful. Her vibrant blue eyes were filled with nothing but obvious interest.

"Everyone is happy. Anna does not feel bad about it." I answered as honestly as I could.

Anna didn't feel bad about it because she did not know that all the other new moons thought I was also in a relationship with Arthur. She wouldn't feel bad when I told her, I knew that. I would explain what had happened and she would call me dummy before laughing it off.

Although, for her to really understand why I had done what I had, I would have to tell her about Tana.

She would understand, and even if she was mad that I had kept it from her for so long, I had two days to train with her before my next class.

"Are you done prying into her personal life or is there more?" Vanda asked as she pulled Mallory away from me by the back of her cloak.

Mallory rolled her eyes as she made a show of being dragged away. "Sorry that I'm curious. You know how I grew up, you would be too. If I never see you again, Ire, I am glad that you got the chance to know me!"

As I watched them turn into the singing stairs and leave my hall, I realized that I didn't know how Mallory had grown up.

I knew less about any of them than they knew about me.

I would have to change that. The feelings their care had left me with were too strong for me to not want to be closer with them.

All the new moons had left, but I was still not alone. I walked to the door of Anna and I's quarters, but I did not go inside. Alexei waited outside of his own door, and I knew that he would not leave the hall until I was safe inside.

My eyes met the empty white of his, and sigh sagged my shoulders as it slipped out of me.

"Thank you." I said, knowing that despite how much anger I still had for him, if he had not come to me when he did, my night would have been very different than it was.

For a long moment I wondered if he had heard me. Then, for an even longer moment, I thought that he had heard me and was just choosing to stay silent. Finally, he opened his mouth and said the most infuriating thing I had ever heard.

"For what?" He asked, the ghostly light of the singing stairs turning the edges of his white hair silver.

I clenched my fists and stomped my foot. "Do you have to always find the most annoying thing possible to say? You helped me. I am giving thanks. Why not just accept it."

"All I did was what my duty required of me." My white haired guard said with no expression on his face or in his voice.

But then, he did something that was so confusing I thought my mind might split in half from the strain of trying to figure it out.

He smiled.

"You, on the other hand, did something that most sorceresses never learn how to do." He said as he took a step closer to me.

I was too confused to be anything other than honest. "I don't understand."

"Restraint. You had the power, will, and opportunity to bring great harm to your sister, but you chose not to. That is a feat that is far beyond your years." Alexei explained as he opened his door.

"Oh," I muttered and thought about what he said. "Thank you."

He nodded. "Since you are speaking to me again, does that mean you will cease your attempts at escaping me?"

I thought about it, made a decision, and opened my own door. "No. I'm going to try even harder."

I slipped into my quarters and slammed the door behind me in some silly attempt at winning. I did not know why it had felt important that I made it into my room first, but it had.

By the rules that I had just made up, I had beaten my white haired guard, and it was almost as sweet as the first victory I had claimed that day.

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I did not need to call out for Anna to find where she was. I found her before the sound of the door slamming left my ears fully.

Over half of my life was a mystery to me.

When I was able to think and retain memories again, my mother had told me that stealing The Well had nearly broken my mind completely, and that if it were not for The Mother's, I would not have survived.

Time had passed quickly in those early years, and most of what I could remember from then was faded and blurry at the edges like a dream.

Truly, I did not feel like what I had come to think of as my life until I had escaped my mother's quarters and fled to the mortal plane. Through all the fear, confusion, and difficulty I had been through after that had happened, no memories were clearer to me than those that Anna was in.

In all of them, there had never been a moment that my beloved looked as nervous as she did when I came through the door.

"What are you doing?" I called out to her as I unclasped my cloak and let it fall to the floor behind me.

As Mallory had called her, the dark haired beauty sat cross legged atop the bathroom counter, running water steaming in the sink and a bottle of wine open next to her.

She jumped at the sound of my voice and nearly fell back from her perch. "Why are you back already! You should have knocked!"

"But I never knock? And it's late already," The expression on her reflection's face was different enough from anything I was used to that I became irresistibly curious in an instant. "Are you doing something bad?"

I skipped over to her and bent myself around her so I could see what she was obviously trying to hide from me.

"No! Are you still letting a cat decide what you do?" She snapped back and stretched her cupped hands away from me.

I laughed and started wrestling against her. "You are aren't you? I already told you about Sam, you're just trying to make me mad so I leave you alone."

Anna curled around her hands and flexed every small muscle she had to keep my prying fingers from gaining ground. "It's so stupid! He's your familiar. You shouldn't wait for him to decide to be here before you go to The Well."

"How am I supposed to just make him do what I want? He isn't just a thing, he has a soul." I growled as I wormed my way through her defenses.

It wasn't hard. My love for attacking her was not because she was a challenging opponent.

"He's a cat! And you're a freak! Get off me!" She shouted, but I could see the smile cracking across her face in the mirror.

I loved wrestling her because I knew at some point during it, without fail, she would start to laugh and give up.

"Tell me what you were doing! I'll cut my hair if you don't!" I threatened, knowing that I had won before I ever finished what I was saying.

She gave up immediately and spun around to face me. "No! It's so pretty."

My mask of Ire fell away from my face as she brushed her black painted nails through my hair and brought a lock of it over my shoulder. It was long, longer than it ever had been, and I would have already cut it if she didn't like it so much.

"Then tell me why you look so nervous. I'm always doing something I'm not supposed to, I can keep a secret." I said softly and reached down to her still closed hand.

"Fine, but you aren't allowed to laugh," She said with her brows furrowed. "I've been trying to pierce my ears again, but I can't make myself do it."

"Why not?" I asked as I took the little needle from her hand and held it up.

"Because it's going to hurt." She muttered and cast her dark eyes down to the floor.

I knew I wasn't allowed to, but I couldn't help myself.

I laughed, hard.

"Hey!" She shouted and pushed me away.

"I'm sorry, it's just," I gasped, glad to see that her smile had not faded completely. "I'm almost certain that I have seen you threaten The Mothers to their faces, but you are scared of a little needle."

Anna took the needle back from me and stuck underneath the still steaming water. "If it's so easy, then let me do it to you."

"Sure, but then I get to do it to you." I said and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Fine." Anna said and mirrored my pose.

We both broke at the same time and ended our false argument as I went to her.

"You don't actually have to do this. It is going to hurt." She said as she brushed my hair back from my right ear.

"I want to. We can wear matching ones, right?"I answered honestly and asked. Wearing my sandals and having my nails painted had made me feel like myself more than almost anything I had ever done.

"I don't think you understand how much it hurts to be with someone that is so cute all the time," Anna said as she brought her hands up to my ear. "You have to be still, okay? I'll count to three."

I held my breath and closed my eyes, still warmed by the fact that Anna thought I was cute.

She did as she said she would and counted. "One. Two. Three."

A sharp knock sounded from our door at the very same moment that Anna pinched my ear. I snapped my head around and the small discomfort of the pinch tore into full on pain.

"I told you to be still!" Anna shouted as she pressed her hand hard against my head.

I clamped my hand over hers and tried not to panic at the warm wetness I felt on her fingers.

"I shouldn't have laughed at you. I should have been scared. I'm sorry!" I cried, the warmth beginning to run down my neck.

The sharp knock sounded again.

"Let me see, you're okay, let me see." Anna said softly.

I let her pull my hand away. "You're using your comforting tone. Oh, Mothers help me, I cut my ear off, didn't I?"

"No, no, no, it's not that bad. You just ripped it a little. But don't look, okay?" Anna said in little more than a whisper.

I pushed her away and looked.

I shouldn't have.

"A little! The bottom of it is hanging off," I shouted and clamped my hands back over the mangled mess of flesh that was spilling blood down my neck.

For the third time, three sharp knocks echoed into the bathroom.

"Who is knocking on the door, are you expecting someone?" Anna asked as her eyes darted from me to the doorway and back again.

"No, maybe, I don't know. I'm going to die, aren't I?" I shouted again as drops of bright red blood splattered down into the still running sink.

The knocks did not come again. The sound of the door clicking and swinging open came in their place.

Mother Nami appeared in the mirror as she walked into our quarters slowly. "Hello? Underwitch Autumn? Lady Anna?" I heard shouting. Is everything-"

Shock and confusion colored her face, and she grew larger in the mirror with every fluid step she took towards us. "What has happened? Why are you bleeding?"

"We were trying to pierce our ears and-" Anna started to explain.

I interrupted her, suddenly needing Nami to know just how dire my situation was. "I've been mutilated! I'll never hear the same again!"

"May I?" Nami asked aloud and pulled my hands away, an amused expression turning up the corners of her mouth.

"Why are you smiling? You are just like the rest of them! It makes you happy when I'm hurt!" I shouted and tried to shrink away from her.

The Mother in Blue brought her hands to the bloody mess on the side of my face and the pain vanished. "I was a new moon the first time I pierced mine as well. Precept Cherith and I tried to use a sewing needle just like you two were. That's not the right way to do it, there are souls in cities bigger than Hymneth that are trained and can pierce just about any place on you that you wish. It took us hours to work up the courage, but we finally did, and we spent the rest of the night staring at ourselves in the mirror."

The pain had gone first, and my panic followed with it as Nami guided me down to the sink. All I could see was my blood draining into the sink as she washed the gore away and the ocean blue glow of her aura.

"Neither of us knew how to take care of them properly, and neither of us were very good at healing yet, so they got infected. Mine swelled so much that I could hardly lay my head down at night," Nami said through a laugh. "Do you have the jewelry?"

"I'll go get it. Autumn, what do you want?" Anna asked as she turned for the door.

"I don't know, I've never thought about doing this before." I cried quietly as the water in the sink ran clear once again.

Nami shook her head. "No, wait. I will use this and she can change it out whenever she wishes."

I looked up just in time to see The Mother in Blue brush her gradient blue hair back with one hand and take something silver out of her ear.

Then, it was over.

She helped me stand back up and showed me what she had done.

There was no blood. There was no torn flesh or ruined ear. I would still be able to hear just as well as I had been able to before. A small silver moon, just like the one that I had won by surviving the cutting waters of The River Eae, hung from a tiny chain on my left ear.

"What do you think?" She asked as I brought my fingers up to it.

"This is mine now. You can't have it back," I answered honestly as I snatched my vial necklace out from underneath my dress. It took me a moment, and I nearly dropped it down the sink several times, but I eventually unhooked the little moon that was mine from the necklace and handed it to Nami. "Do her now. We are going to match."

Nami and Anna both laughed at my insistence, but I could not have been more serious.

"Thank you, and I'm sorry for what I said about my pain making you happy. I was just upset." I said through a sigh when I realized that I had just been healed by her.

Her blue already covering Anna's ears, she shook her head and gave a sigh of her own. "Do not apologize. The reason I am here will likely upset you once again and I would not blame you if it did."

"What is it?" Anna demanded, her brows furrowed and her jaw clinched.

The Mother in Blue gave an apologetic smile towards Anna through the mirror. "With everything going on, it has been a struggle to plan your next super secret training. I am sorry that I was not able to give you notice, but The Mothers have gathered upstairs and are waiting on you."

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